One man lays wreaths in Normandy on unusual D-Day hit by coronavirus

6/6/20

from FoxNews,

6/6/20:

The essence of war remembrance is to make sure the fallen are never forgotten. All it takes is a wreath, a tiny wooden cross, a little token on a faraway grave to show that people still care about their fallen hero, parent or grandparent.
This year, though, the pandemic stepped in, barring all travel for families to visit the World War II graves in France's Normandy, where Saturday marks the 76th anniversary of the epic D-Day battle, when allied troops successfully stormed the beaches and turned the war against the Nazis.
So anguished families turned to the next best thing — an Englishman living on D-day territory, a pensioner with a big heart and a small hole in his agenda.

Turkey Rebuffs U.S. on Kurds

President Trump’s plans for a swift withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria were thrown into disarray when Turkey’s president rejected a request to protect U.S. allies fighting in the region and instead threatened military strikes against them.
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan declined on Tuesday to meet with Mr. Trump’s visiting national security adviser, John Bolton, who had called on Turkey not to target a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that Turkey calls a terrorist organization.
“John Bolton made a serious mistake,” Mr. Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling Justice & Development Party on Tuesday. “Those who share the same view are also deeply wrong.”
Mr. Bolton’s inability to forge a deal with Turkey raised the possibility that a U.S. pullout could be postponed indefinitely—and it opened a new rift between two North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies who have frequently clashed over the U.S.’s Middle East policies.
It also exposed weaknesses in the Trump administration’s shifting struggles to implement the president’s abrupt decision in December to quickly end the U.S.’s four-year military campaign against Islamic State in Syria.

The Trump administration began imposing new conditions for Turkey to meet before the U.S. agrees to withdraw, including a demand that Ankara pledge not to “slaughter” Kurdish fighters armed by the U.S., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week.
Administration officials thought Mr. Erdogan agreed to do just that in a Dec. 23 call with Mr. Trump. But the Turkish leader made it clear on Tuesday that he rejects that demand in a speech in which he personally blasted Mr. Bolton for publicly raising the demand on the eve of his visit to Ankara.
Mr. Erdogan has steadfastly opposed the U.S.’s partnership with Kurdish fighters in Syria.